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Mayor's Son To Stand Trial For Election Fraud, Violence
http://asbarez.com/109961/mayor%E2%80%99s-son-to-stand-trial-for-election-fraud-violence/
Friday, May 10th, 2013
Presidential election observer Narine Esmaeli was assaulted while
observing polling
YEREVAN (RFE/RL) - The son of an Armenian town mayor will go on trial
soon on charges of assaulting an Armenian-American observer in one of
the most serious cases of fraud reported during the February 18
presidential election.
The incident took place at a polling station in Artashat, the
administrative center of Armenia's southern Ararat province. Narine
Esmaeli, a U.S. citizen of Armenian descent, monitored voting there
together with a Yerevan-based observer, representing an Armenian civic
group.
The observers say they were attacked by a large group of government
loyalists that stuffed hundreds of ballots. Esmaeli has also accused
local police officers of bullying her after the incident.
The allegations, picked up by Armenian opposition and civic groups,
resulted in the launch of a criminal investigation by the Special
Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement agency subordinate to
state prosecutors. They also led Armenia's Constitutional Court to
invalidate the official vote results in the troubled Artashat
precinct.
In a statement issued this week, the Office of the Prosecutor-General
announced that one local man, Sergey Muradian, has been charged with
hitting Esmaeli and obstructing her work for vote rigging purposes.
The statement said he burst into the polling station together with `a
group of individuals' that stuffed the ballots.
Muradian, who works as a staffer at the Armenian parliament and whose
father Gagik is Artashat's current mayor, will face up to five years'
imprisonment if found guilty by court.
The prosecutors' statement indicated that law-enforcement authorities
will look for the other men involved in the fraud parallel to
Muradian's trial.
The SIS came under fire last month after Esmaeli, who arrived in
Armenia last year to intern with the local branch of Transparency
International, accused it of blackmailing her with intimate
photographs that were taken secretly.
The SIS offered a different version of events, saying that it got hold
of a more than 5-hour-long footage taken in the bathroom of Esmaeli's
Yerevan apartment. It claimed that the video was sent to the Central
Election Commission by the Europe in Law NGO that monitored the
presidential election. Both Europe in Law and Transparency
International representatives in Armenia strongly denied that.
The SIS and prosecutors pressed charges against the Artashat mayor's
son in the following weeks.
http://asbarez.com/109961/mayor%E2%80%99s-son-to-stand-trial-for-election-fraud-violence/
Friday, May 10th, 2013
Presidential election observer Narine Esmaeli was assaulted while
observing polling
YEREVAN (RFE/RL) - The son of an Armenian town mayor will go on trial
soon on charges of assaulting an Armenian-American observer in one of
the most serious cases of fraud reported during the February 18
presidential election.
The incident took place at a polling station in Artashat, the
administrative center of Armenia's southern Ararat province. Narine
Esmaeli, a U.S. citizen of Armenian descent, monitored voting there
together with a Yerevan-based observer, representing an Armenian civic
group.
The observers say they were attacked by a large group of government
loyalists that stuffed hundreds of ballots. Esmaeli has also accused
local police officers of bullying her after the incident.
The allegations, picked up by Armenian opposition and civic groups,
resulted in the launch of a criminal investigation by the Special
Investigative Service (SIS), a law-enforcement agency subordinate to
state prosecutors. They also led Armenia's Constitutional Court to
invalidate the official vote results in the troubled Artashat
precinct.
In a statement issued this week, the Office of the Prosecutor-General
announced that one local man, Sergey Muradian, has been charged with
hitting Esmaeli and obstructing her work for vote rigging purposes.
The statement said he burst into the polling station together with `a
group of individuals' that stuffed the ballots.
Muradian, who works as a staffer at the Armenian parliament and whose
father Gagik is Artashat's current mayor, will face up to five years'
imprisonment if found guilty by court.
The prosecutors' statement indicated that law-enforcement authorities
will look for the other men involved in the fraud parallel to
Muradian's trial.
The SIS came under fire last month after Esmaeli, who arrived in
Armenia last year to intern with the local branch of Transparency
International, accused it of blackmailing her with intimate
photographs that were taken secretly.
The SIS offered a different version of events, saying that it got hold
of a more than 5-hour-long footage taken in the bathroom of Esmaeli's
Yerevan apartment. It claimed that the video was sent to the Central
Election Commission by the Europe in Law NGO that monitored the
presidential election. Both Europe in Law and Transparency
International representatives in Armenia strongly denied that.
The SIS and prosecutors pressed charges against the Artashat mayor's
son in the following weeks.